Massive anti-tax protest in Spain's Catalonia

By The Associated Press
| 10:30 a.m.Sept. 11, 2012

A woman dressed in traditional costume holds flowers to be delivered at the monument of a leader killed during the fall of the city in 1714 in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona on Tuesday to join a rally demanding independence for Catalonia, in north-eastern Spain, on the Catalan national day. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
— AP

A woman dressed in traditional costume holds flowers to be delivered at the monument of a leader killed during the fall of the city in 1714 in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona on Tuesday to join a rally demanding independence for Catalonia, in north-eastern Spain, on the Catalan national day. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
/ AP

Ferran Estrada Porta, 79, wearing the traditional cup or "barretina" and holding a Catalan flag, plays his trumpet on the street in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona on Tuesday to join a rally demanding independence for Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, on the Catalan national day. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)— AP

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Ferran Estrada Porta, 79, wearing the traditional cup or "barretina" and holding a Catalan flag, plays his trumpet on the street in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Thousands of people demonstrated in Barcelona on Tuesday to join a rally demanding independence for Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, on the Catalan national day. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
/ AP

MADRID 
Tens of thousands of people angered by Spain's financial crisis are protesting in Barcelona on the Catalonia region's `National Day," claiming they pay more than their fair share in taxes to the federal government in Madrid.

The turnout for the day marking the defeat of Catalan forces during the War of the Spanish Succession was the largest in years.

Catalonia has said it will ask Madrid for money from a bailout fund, but the region's politicians insist they wouldn't be hurting as much if tax revenue was distributed equitably - a longstanding demand.

Residents and Catalan politicians waved red and yellow Catalan flags Tuesday as they swarmed Barcelona's avenues. They also laid flowers at monuments to Catalan defenders who tried to prevent Barcelona's capture by King Phillip V in 1714.